Marine killers heading south

A rise in sea temperatures of just half a degree could send deadly box and irukandji jellyfish south, according to experts. So far this summer, 50 people have been hospitalised from jellyfish stings in Queensland alone. The most prevalent cases have usually been along the state's northern coastline but the effects of climate change could bring jellyfish as far south as the Gold Coast.

Transcript

HEATHER EWART, PRESENTER: Welcome to the program, I'm Heather Ewart.

Throughout summer box and irukandji jellyfish pose a deadly threat to beachgoers across northern Australia.

While there have been no fatalities so far this season about 50 people in Queensland alone have been hospitalised with severe injuries.

Now the marine killers could be heading south.

Kirrin McKechnie reports from Queensland.

RUTH MACKLIN, MOTHER: They were having fun, squealing in the water. And their squeals changed all of a sudden to screams.

Jellyfish tentacles wrapped all around her legs. She first said to me, "Mummy, I can't see." Then she said, "Mummy, am I going to die?"

And then she said, "I can't breathe".

(To daughter) How is your leg feeling?

RACHAEL SHARDLOW, JELLYFISH VICTIM: Good mum.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE, REPORTER: Rachael Shardlow was finally on the mend after a severe sting from a box jellyfish a week before Christmas.

The 10-year-old was stung while swimming with her brother in the Calliope River near Gladstone on Queensland's central coast. She was 23 kilometres inland.

RUTH MACKLIN: Jeff and I looked at each other and it was, "She's gone, we are going to lose her." It was, yeah it was horrific.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: But a family camping nearby came to the rescue, dousing her legs in vinegar.

RUTH MACKLIN: They say she would have died. When the tentacles are on the leg the venom keeps pumping. So as long as they stay on the leg they will keep pumping venom. So the quicker you can get them off the better chance you have.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: Even then she wasn't out of the woods. The injuries were so horrific doctors put her in an induced coma for days. She spent more than two weeks in hospital. Her injuries were treated like third degree burns.

JEFF: That's how it reacts with the skin. It's like a severe chemical burn, like someone has thrown acid over her legs.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: Luckily Rachael Shardlow doesn't remember the point of contact or the intense pain that followed. But she will always have the scars.

RACHAEL SHARDLOW: It's just like more all around here and everything. It just basically looks like that, just like a bit more redder.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: Hers is not an isolated case. This summer scores of beachgoers have been hospitalised due to jellyfish stings in waters from the Torres Strait to Central Queensland.

JAMIE SEYMOUR, JELLYFISH EXPERT: The best way I can explain it is take a red hot knife, drag it across your skin, intensify it by a factor of about 10 and hold onto that pain.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: Jamie Seymour is a jellyfish expert at the James Cook University in Cairns.

Box jellyfish stings come with the territory. He's been stung hundreds of times.

JAMIE SEYMOUR: And you only need one of those tentacles, so two metres on a 70 kilo person will kill somebody in under two or three minutes.

I mean it is the most venomous animal we know on the planet. Nothing kills as quickly as one of these things.

So this is basically a purpose built irukandji tank.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: As a marine killer its cousin the irukandji jellyfish comes a close second. Even at its biggest it's still no larger than a five cent piece. That makes it impossible to see in the ocean and stinger nets can't keep irukandjis out.

JAMIE SEYMOUR: The big difference between these and a big box jellyfish - you get half a millimetre of tentacle from one of these will see you in hospital. You don't need two or three metres of tentacle.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: Throughout summer Jamie Seymour spends his nights harvesting the creatures in the waters around Cairns.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: The scientist has been researching jellyfish for nearly 20 years. This is one of the biggest seasons he's seen.

JAMIE SEYMOUR: Beautiful.

I've caught more irukandji off the beach here at Cairns here in the last three or four days than I have in my entire career. We've seen more boxies, big box jellyfish on the beach here than I have for many, many years.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: For half the year the deadly jellyfish close many North Queensland beaches.

Those who do brave the ocean are huddled into protective nets or forced to wear full body suits.

But Jamie Seymour believes global warming will soon make the creatures a menace elsewhere.

JAMIE SEYMOUR: We're seeing it. We're seeing it now. Thirty, 40 years ago the length of the season was about a month, month and a half.

The length of the season now is about five and a half to six months. And it's increasing like that as water temperature goes up.

The other thing we're seeing they're getting further and further south. In the past it's been a problem for North Queensland. We don't need to worry about it.

Give it time, it will be a problem down in Surfers Paradise.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: All it'll take he says is a rise in water temperatures of just half a degree.

JAMIE SEYMOUR: Noosa and those sorts of areas, the Sunshine Coast - the next five to 10 years I will be amazed if we don't start seeing irukandji stings down there.

Kirrin MCKECHNIE: For Sunshine Coast tourism boss Russell Mason that's a worrying prospect and one that'll be felt throughout the Australian economy.

RUSSELL MASON, TOURISM SUNSHINE COAST: Tourism employs directly across the Sunshine Coast 20 per cent of our population. So we are in a very important pass and any threat to the tourism industry needs to be dealt with quickly.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: He says the biggest hurdle for tourism operators will be stemming public panic.

RUSSELL MASON: It's a bit like shark attacks in the fact that people don't know a lot about the irukandji at the moment and because people don't know a lot they get very worried.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: But Jamie Seymour is on the case as he races to solve the puzzle of the mysterious marine killers.

JAMIE SEYMOUR: I've got this vision of being able to see people all the way down the beaches enjoying themselves.

What we need to be able to do that is get a handle on the jellyfish. And the only way to do that is to get a handle on how they actually operate, what their biology is and go from there.

KIRRIN MCKECHNIE: But until then Rachael Shardlow for one won't be venturing into the water again anytime soon.

RACHAEL SHARDLOW: I'm not going to go to the beach for a while. I'm going to be swimming in swimming pools.